Recently, Google has been busy beefing up Latitude to make it more competitive with other location apps -- and more fun to use. Location history was added recently, iOS users can post check-ins via Latitude, and now Google has begun rolling out location-based deals which are tied to the service.
If you're in the U.S., you can now score local savings at participating merchants by checking in with Latitude. Google will also be offering "status deals," which users can unlock by visiting a particular merchant on a regular basis. Mashable notes three status levels: regular, VIP, and guru -- though partners can apparently customize those titles if they choose.
Right now deals are available from merchants like American Eagle Outfitters, Arby's, Finish Line, Macy's, Quiznos, and RadioShack.
They won't be beaming GPS or radio signals back to Earth anytime soon, but these one-inch-square satellites could one day travel to distant planets -- without fuel. Developed over a period of three years by a team of undergraduates at Cornell University, the Sprite chips could eventually be used for communication, flying in clusters like tiny space plankton. After hitching a ride on-board the final space shuttle Endeavour mission this afternoon, the three prototype satellites will be mounted outside the International Space Station, where they'll sit for the next few years, exposed to conditions found only beyond our atmosphere. Perhaps someday we'll even see some "Spprite" KIRFs by the time China's own space station is ready to hit the launchpad in 2020.
It's often said that you'll be happy if you find a way to do something you love. Mike Yager took that saying to heart. In 1970, at the age of 20, Yager went out and bought his first Corvette, a 1967 convertible. Four years later, Yager borrowed $500 to start up a small business selling parts manuals and accessories from the back of a car. That business, along with Yager's reputation, grew strong in the Corvette community. In 1976, Mike Yager made a life-changing move to turn this into his full-time job, and Mid America Motorworks was born.
Thirty-seven years after he borrowed those Benjamins, Yager has turned Mid America Motorworks into a company that ships over four million catalogs per year. And his collection of Corvettes has grown exponentially since he bought that '67 drop-top. Some standouts include CERV-1, XP-819 and a 1968 Le Mans Corvette that's painted Ferrari red and wears the prancing stallion on its front fenders.
It's not just Corvettes, however, as Yager also has a soft spot for old Volkswagens. He celebrates both makes at his annual Funfest events, one for VWs and one for the Corvette. The Funfest weekend has grown since the very first one took place back in 1994. In 2010, Mid America's 180+ acre Effingham, Illinois facility played host to over 17,000 cars and more than 45,000 people.
The man's knowledge of Corvettes is also freakishly extensive. Yager has applied it into a book called the Corvette Bible. In it, Yager delves into the details of every Corvette model produced since the first 300 rolled off an assembly line for the 1953 model year.
This isn't just a book for 'Vette collectors, however, because it's filled with amazing photography and a wealth of knowledge that makes an informative read for even casual Corvette fans. Now in it's second edition, the Corvette Bible covers cars right up to 2011. The first edition was good enough to earn a spot on the New York Times bestseller's list, so we think the second edition deserves a spot on your coffee table.
That's why we secured a signed copy to give away to one lucky reader. Leave a comment on this post to enter (only one comment or else you're disqualified), and we'll choose one lucky recipient for the win.
How to Enter:
Leave a single comment on this post (if you leave two or more, all of your entries will disqualified)
You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the U.S. or Canada (excluding Quebec)
Limit 1 entry per person during entry period
This entry period begins 7:30 PM EST on Friday, April 29 and ends at 7:30 PM EST on Sunday, May 1.
Back when I was a kid, I used to love crafting ornate puzzle boxes out of Lego. There would be just one way to open the box, by carefully shifting and rotating a bunch of pieces. Well, either that, or breaking the box in frustration.
Interlocked takes that spirit and turns it into a beautiful Flash game. It's a good thing the soundtrack is soothing, because the game itself can get pretty frustrating.
At the start of each level, you're presented with a box built out of blocks in different colors. You can click and drag the mouse to rotate the box any which way. Once you decide you want to shift a part of the box, hit SPACE to switch into "move" mode. You can then click any part of the box and drag it. Of course, you can only move a part as long as nothing is in its way. So it becomes a matter of understanding how the box is built, and what parts you need to move around so you could eventually take the box apart.
It's a tricky, difficult game, but it's a great brain teaser -- and definitely a keeper.
Desire HD owners have had their hands on some previously leaked versions of Gingerbread, and the final shipping version of Gingerbread for the device has now appeared. It's unbranded so you need not worry about any carrier bloat added and all apps thus far are up and running perfectly fine for me.
If you're a Desire HD owner and looking to get in on Gingerbread, this is a pretty good build to start off with. A few caveats to remember, if you're rooted, you will lose it but it is easily regained by installing Gingerbreak. You will of course also want to back up your data depending on how you decide to flash the ROM but realistically, you should be back up your data anyway.
The download is available in RUU form or if you prefer, just grab the PD98IMG.zip file and load it through the boot loader method. This will work for all Desire HD devices as you do not need to be rooted in order to load it up, nor do you need S-OFF. If you're not down with doing all of that, sit tight -- I'm sure a lot of custom ROMS for this will be along soon in addition to an official release.
San Diego Supercross. 1991. I knew that 1991 was going to be my last year racing supercross, because of the wrist injury I suffered at the Gainesville AMA National Motocross in 1989. Little did I know that San Diego would be my last 'real' supercross race.
In this video, you'll see some of that last race. And you'll see defending AMA Camel Supercross Champion Jeff Stanton, Damon Bradsahw, Jeff Ward, Jean-Michel Bayle, Guy Cooper, Bevo Forte, Broc Glover, and more.
This nitrous backfire may have only lasted a few tenths of a second, but we imagine that was far too long for the unfortunate Harley owner shown in this video. More »
Once paralyzed, motocross rider completes ride across America with victory lap around Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Jimmy Button reached his goal on Sunday – standing on top of the box inside Gatorade Victory Lane at historic Daytona International Speedway spraying champagne in celebration.
Jimmy Button at the head of the pack on his victory lap around Daytona International Speedway on Sunday. (Photo credit: Robby Lyons)
Button, a former motocross rider once paralyzed in a Supercross practice accident 11 years ago, rode 2,428 miles from San Diego, Calif., to Daytona International Speedway with the objective of raising money for spinal cord research. Along with his trainer and longtime friend Cory Worf, he completed his ride with a victory lap around the storied 2.5-mile tri-oval.
Just like every other Firefox release, initial reception for the new browser has been nothing short of insane. 7.1 million downloads were registered in the first 24 hours and the download rate continued to accelerate, clocking in more than 15 million downloads after two days. At the time of writing, three days in, Firefox 4 has been downloaded over 25 million times. In case you're wondering, the United States accounts for 7 million of those downloads, just beating out Germany's Firefox-downloads-per-capita.
But now that you've installed Firefox 4 (you have, right?), what do you do now? Well, obviously, in true Download Squad fashion, it's time to tweak Firefox 4 using add-ons and about:config hacks!
First up is an add-on called Stratiform that lets you change every aspect of the Firefox 4 browser chrome -- including the color of that orange button!
Mozy is one of the most popular cloud backup services around, with more than one million users storing around 70 petabytes of data. Its popularity apparently put it on the acquisition radar of VMware -- which has now made Mozy part of its virtualization empire.
VMware's official blog post makes it clear that the company wasn't so much interested in Mozy as a consumer offering. Rather, it's the inner workings of Mozy which piqued VMware's curiosity. CTO Steve Herrod says, "Over the past 5 years, Mozy has built one of the best examples of a globally distributed, large-scale cloud offering." He adds that the move will allow VMware to "further ramp our own cloud-related learning and accelerate new IP, scale, and capabilities" of its existing offerings.
Existing Mozy customers don't need to worry, of course. VMware has pledged to continue running Mozy's service without interruption.
As Darren traipses WiFi-free across the Grand Canyon, Myriam and Brian join Tim to bring a previously unheard-of amalgamation of Engadget Podcasters to the fold. As an added bonus, If you don't watch out, this Engadget Podcast will also wormhole its way into your credit card, find out your PIN, and email your parents a list of locations where you used it for the past 6 months. Just sayin'.
Host: Tim Stevens Guests: Myriam Joire, Brian Heater Producer:Trent Wolbe Music:Boom
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC). [RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator. [Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace
Is there room for another Bejeweled clone in the App Store? I'd rather play the original version online, but the three-men team at Void Software is committed to prove that the concept can be fun with an original twist.
Quis [iTunes Link] is a match-three game where you to combine hexagons of the same colour to clear the screen as fast as possible. Using swipe gestures or taps, you will need to align the correct combination of pieces as they fall from the top of the screen and before they reach the bottom.
The game also increases its pace as you progress, dropping lines of hexagons faster, quickly cluttering your screen. Surprisingly, Quis also has a button to speed up things, which I found specially useful at the beginning of the level when speed is low.
Unlike games like Tetris, in Quis the player has several lives per level, allowing you to keep on playing for a while until you unlock the next challenge. In some levels you even get extra lives in power up blocks and there is a reason for that. Every time an hexagon reaches the bottom of the screen, you loose one life. If you just happened to plan poorly and get two long columns of unmatchable hexagons, those lives can go very quickly.
To add some extra fun to the gameplay, the creators have also included power ups including an electric blast that destroys every hexagon on the same line, bombs and other bonuses that I haven't unlocked yet. I found these quite useful and helped me to plan my moves ahead, as there is nothing worst than blasting a whole line of hexagons to realise that there some lonely ones have been left with the impossibility of matching them with their neighbours.
The issue that bugged me most is matching the actual numbers on the blocks. The instructions say that you can combine hexagons of the same colours and numbers, but I never managed to match hexagons of different colour with the same number! If this is actually the case, then there's surely no reason to write numbers on them.
A second issue arises with the combination options: when I intentionally move certain pieces to create a good combo, only one of the colour sets disappears, leaving the second and third one for your next moves. I'm not sure wether this is intentional or not, but I would have liked the behaviour you can see on the Bejeweled franchise, where you make one move and every other piece falls into place making a greater combo.
Update: The developer has answered to my question via email about these two drawbacks. It turns out that number combinations are only available on levels 3, 4 and 6! Basically you cannot attempt matching colours and numbers simultaneously unless you are on the bonus level. Regarding combination combos, Milika, from Void Software, explained me that they tried the idea but would make the game too easy, especially on the first levels. They might try to incorporate something like this in the future if they can avoid breaking all the blocks at once!
After some time playing Quis I forgot about these two issues and kept concentrated making only allowed moves, since a point is deducted from the score every time you try an incorrect move. For the reasons mentioned above, this can take a while to master.
Overall, Quis is a fun match-three game that puts your logic skills to test under the pressure of the clock. Puzzle fans who have already played similar games will find it a bit more dynamic and hectic than your average match-three title. While graphics and sounds are adequate, the game falls short on some gameplay elements and very confusing set of instructions.
Uranium that's been depleted isn't necessarily waste, according to researchers at Nottingham University. They think—besides making ammo and tank armor—it could be used as the basis for future hard drives thousands of times larger than current ones. More »
Two California residents, Drew Moss and Sahar Maleksaeedi, have filed a rather peculiar class action lawsuit against Twitter (see documents embedded below). Basically, they're suing over the fact that Twitter sent a confirmatory SMS to their cellphone after they themselves used an SMS command ('STOP') meant to turn off all phone notifications. The two men allege that Twitter has engaged in unlawful conduct by contacting them on their mobile phones without their consent, which they say is a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) and an invasion of their privacy.
The man's knowledge of Corvettes is also freakishly extensive. Yager has applied it into a book called the Corvette Bible. In it, Yager delves into the details of every Corvette model produced since the first 300 rolled off an assembly line for the 1953 model year.
Two California residents, Drew Moss and Sahar Maleksaeedi, have 